Much like the Scarecrow, I’m desperate for brains

When my husband brought Zombie Dice home, he said it was a great filler game to take to the bar or event. It was easy to teach and entertaining.

And he was right; I loved it. 

It was quick. 

I could teach it to any of my friends. 

But most of all, I loved shaking the cup—it was just like playing Yahtzee as a kid.

The racket it makes is sooooo satisfying. It puts a smile on my face. 

For you who haven’t played Zombie Dice, it is (shockingly) a dice game where you are a zombie chasing brains and trying to avoid shotguns. It’s lightweight and fun —  a buttery popcorn of a game. 

You are a zombie attempting to get to 13 brains before your zombie friends. The game was designed by Steve Jackson and published by Steve Jackson Games. It is a push-your-luck game; you roll dice to see if you get brains or blasts and decide when to stop and keep your bounty of brains or keep going until you get your grotty ones blasted out. (Since you are a zombie, there isn’t much more than that in the game. I mean, how much can you expect a zombie to keep track of?)

We saw a recommendation online to make it even better. Instead of carrying around a score pad and pencil like you were at a grotesque Zombieland minigolf course, you could just throw a bag of pink brain tokens into the cup and use those to keep count instead. It’s so much easier for your rotting zombie brain or a late night at the bar.

I loved my new pink brains. So, apparently did everyone else, because they were out of stock everywhere the next time I went to buy some for a friend.

I flaunted my pretty brains any chance I got. They were the best until I played with a group of 7-8 people. We ran out of brains before anyone won. 

The horror! I felt like the Scarecrow. I immediately went to the internet. I needed bigger (to count for 5) brains! 

And I found them. They were even better, with texture and color. I felt inspired – I could make my tiny brains better, too, with a little bit of paint. (Or a lot of Nik’s expensive model paint and quite a bit of gore splattered around my workspace… but I’ll stick to my first version of the story.)

Gorey gooey brains gathered I was pleased. We played with a big group and had the right amount of brains to go around, along with libations and amusement. 

We took our Zombie Dice on the road with us to Colorado for our annual visiting-all-Bougie’s-family road trip. It made the cut; the hubby was restricted to two bags of games only to keep space in the car for nonessentials like clean clothes. 

(He, of course, stopped at no less than three game stores on the trip and bought six more games.)

I have gotten my whole family addicted to the game. My niece and nephew love it and will always play. My brother-in-law has preternatural luck when playing. It fits easily in a bag or purse, and is great to play out at the brewery or coffeeshop.

I had purchased Zombie Dice for my brother and his partner Kait as a gift — an amuse bouche to entice them into gaming. In my ignorance, however, I did not get them the deluxe version with the awesome rattling cup. They still had the sad little scorepad and no tiny brains. I was appalled at my oversight and whipped out my phone (and my Etsy app) while we were sipping our bourbon, avoiding shotgun blasts, and chasing brains. 

The improved game and a dice roller showed up a week later for them to enjoy. It took me a while to track down the tokens (yes, I had lost my brains and couldn’t find them…)

You, however, can find my brains here:

• I have 2 Bag’O’Brains – you can find them at Twilight Creations, Inc. 
• I also bought a set of 10 larger brain tokens from TopShelfGamer on Etsy for five brain tokens. Buying these led me to another BougieMoment™ — I had to add a speed paint wash to all my smaller brain tokens to make them as cool as these. 
• CoolTokensCave has a token that looks pretty good. 
• Meeple Source has a wood version that’s kinda cool, too. 
• You can buy the game and expansions on Amazon, but you may have to go to eBay to find the Yahtzee-esque cup.

More about Zombie Dice:

• BGG
• Review & How to Okay from BoardGame Bollock (gotta love the accent!)